Arcata Plaza hosts a Halloween car parade

Arcata plaza adjusts to a new, safe way for families to trick or treat on Halloween.

Arcata has adapted to COVID-19 guidelines in order to host a Spooky Plaza car parade in support of a social distant Halloween. Arcata Main Street is a non-profit organization hosting this year’s COVID-19 friendly, Halloween in Arcata Plaza.

The car parade will be hosted at Arcata Plaza on Oct. 31 from 7 to 11 p.m. All the spooky features and characters can be seen while inside the vehicle.

Each part of the inner sidewalk of the plaza will have a different theme with characters and decorations. The event was thought of in late August and planned through September.

Rose Shoshanna Anthony a consultant and volunteer with Arcata Main Street assured people it will be safe to participate as long as community members follow guidelines and protocols.

“The event is to substitute for our usual Trick or Treat on the Plaza that gathers several thousand people over the course of several hours,” Shoshanna said. “So this time we have a decorated plaza with a limited number of volunteers being characters on the plaza and then people drive around.”

To discourage people from the outer sidewalks from walking over the barricades into the plaza spooky area, monitored volunteers and traffic control have been implemented to make sure the event stays in accordance with COVID-19 protocol.

The drives starts on the corner of the Tri County bank and finishes by exiting at the Jacoby Storehouse.

Ceva Courtemanche, board member and vice president for Arcata Main Street, stated that the non-profit organization was determined to host a Halloween event.

“We wanted to not fully give up on Halloween but we wanted to make sure it was gonna be safe for everybody,” Courtemanche said.”So, we put together a plan of doing an open spooky haunted house where participants will be driving in their vehicles around the plaza.”

Lee Lazon, a volunteer for Arcata Main Street, has been working on graveyard and spider props for the haunted drive-by.

“This year has been anything but normal and this is a favorite event for a lot of people and families,” Lazon said. “So, I think a lot of people are very interested just because there’s an opportunity to bring back at least a little bit of normal.”